1. Why Students Do It --- How we Can Stop Them The firdt thing to understand about cheating is that the vast mojority of young people believe that cheating is wrong . Yet surveys show that most young cheat at least once in their high school careers. So, the most important question is why do young people behave is ways that are incosistent with their beliefs? According to Gary Niels, an educator who has studied cheating in our schools, the answer is survival. In a school setting, says Niels,saving face is the -- desire to save oneseld drom the anger of a parent ir teacher; it can mean avoiding embarrasment it can mean economical survival nowadays, colleges acceptance is the major instigator of their survival instict There's a lot of competition to get accepted at the best schools. Acceptance at these elite colleges and universities requies great grades so if you can't fo the work, you have to be dishonest and cheat. In addition, many students feel that everyone else is cheating, so they'll be at a disadvantage if they don't cheat 2. What to Do about It ? Combating Cheating at Home Of course, it is easy to point the finger at young people and say that they are inmoral. however, who is supposed t ogive them their moral compass ? We are. Somehow our society has grown to tolerate cheating and it has een a top-down rather a botton up process. children learn to cheat or at least cut corners at home from their parents. Many of tem are not taught to see the difference between righ and wrong. Others children hear the right lessons. but observe their parents behaving very differently. Parents need to model integrity at all times. Consider this simple example ñast night I was attending a movie whith my family. My son ran into a classmate whose father was in the next ticket line. when we reached the front of the line to buy our tickets, we all heard the boy's father say one adult, two children to the ticket agent - Although his son was too old for a child's tickets . he decided that he could get away wiht it . he saved a couple of dollars and taught his son a terrible lesson.